Alexandra Schmidt
Alexandra Schmidt is the current Supreme Chancellor of the New Republic and has served in the government for most of her life. Elected to be the Senator for Trantor some four decades previously, Schmidt has worked her way through the Senate based on a platform of determination, loyalty, anti-corruption and militarism. Over her career she has held many posts, and in 260 ABY she was elected to the post of Chancellor with a landslide victory over the incumbent, Faras, and several other candidates. She began reforming the Republic soon after. Birth Born into a noble and wealthy family, Alexandra Schmidt quickly became known as a smart and attractive girl, and was quite popular. However, she made sure to distance herself from those who only wanted to be her friend for the status they may gain from being friends with the popular girl. She also became known as a loyal, honest, trustworthy person. Alexandra found a deep love for politics, because she saw it as just another way to help people, and in a greater way than most others because politics could stop wars. Her dreams for joining a Senate that was all about peace and prosperity were short-lived, however, due to the ongoing Age of Strife and the supposed corruption in the Senate. Despite this and with the knowledge that corruption was usually abundant during times of war, Alexandra found a place as aide to the Senator of Trantor, spending this time learning about the ins and outs of politics and how the Senate worked even though, as it stood, this Senate was not the one she had longed to serve in. She would spend seven years, from the age of eighteen to twenty-five, in service to the Senator of Trantor, before stepping down. The Lawyer For Alexandra the war was something in the background; something you hated and feared would one day reach you, but never openly argued against. Instead of concentrating on that she spent her time constructing a firm based around one of her other interests; law. Using her family’s wealth Alexandra was able to build a firm from the ground up, utilizing the knowledge she had gained in the Senate and her own legal knowledge, gained from being the daughter of two prominent lawyers, in the construction of the firm. When the firm was built she found two like-minded lawyers and the firm was named: Lucius, Marivius and Schmidt. To this day Alexandra remains a Founding and Senior Partner at the firm and has become one of the most well-known lawyers on Trantor, and also offers her service to other Core Worlds. Her duties now in the Senate mean that she often assigns the task of travelling to other planets to other members of the firm. Senator of Trantor When the war ended Alexandra saw this as the perfect opportunity to fulfil her dream of serving in a benevolent and honourable Senate, and she immediately ran for the position of Senator of Trantor. Despite garnering a lot of votes for her stance of several issues Alexandra lost, narrowly missing out on victory by something like four percent, maybe less. This did not deter her, however, and she spent the next three years canvassing and increasing her public image and, when the next elections came round, she was able to achieve victory. This victory coincided with the former Senator’s removal for corruption which, given Alexandra’s current stance on corruption, some found to be suspicious. One of Alexandra's first activities was to stand firm against what she considered to be 'a wave of corruption and dissidence within the Senate', and during her first year she created and called for the passing of a bill that would see any Senators found guilty of corruption removed immediately from office, with all of their bonuses and privileges removed. Despite support from many honourable Senators, Alexandra's bill failed, a result she attributed to the corrupt members of the Senate standing together to keep her from unravelling their insidious plans and greed. Even though her bill failed she made an impression upon other members of the Senate, and she would for a group of allies that, later, would become known as the "Five": a group of powerful, wealthy Core World planets that stood together in the Senate, supporting one another and using their combined influence to push their plans forward. In her seventh year as Senator she came up for re-election, and she narrowly won this election. It was at this point that she realized she had been neglecting her constituent planet, and set about passing bills that would see the better treatment of aliens and the poorer members of society on Core Worlds. Even with this bill, she eventually became known as something of a 'toff'; being incredibly wealthy by this point, it was the richer members of her 'constituency' that she seemed to openly represent. Despite this, however, she always pushed for the betterment of all people, and became well-known, respected and eventually loved by citizens on Trantor. Over the course of the first decade of her political career she would push through four bills, each relating to welfare and internal judiciary activities and, during the ninth year of her time as a Senator, she was chosen to serve as a member of the Internal Activities Committee. The Internal Activist This was an appointment many Senators feared. Having constantly spoken out against corruption Alexandra was now in a position to do something about it. Many Senators were arrogant, thinking that she wouldn't risk pushing for investigations into the most powerful Senators for fear of losing her position. They were wrong. In the first two years of her service she uncovered corruption in six Senators, two of whom were extremely influential but, as befit the rules for corruption, had to undergo trials. She continued making allies and, when she successfully passed her former bill that called for the immediate resignation of Senators found to be corrupt, it was considered that she would 'always be re-elected, as long as Trantor wished it, because she has the fire needed to keep a clean floor in the Convocation Chamber". Fighting for Justice Her time as a member of the Internal Activities Committee would not last. Powerful members of the Senate who had escaped her eye - so far - decided to act, and subtly had her appointed to the Justice Council, and removed from the Activities Committee. Despite knowing this was the doing of her adversaries Alexandra agreed to the transferral, and began sitting on the Justice Council. With a strong legal background she was able to make efficient and logical decisions, and was well-known amongst the Council for being politically liberal; she was all for increasing, or at least maintaining, the rule and power of the Galactic Republic, but could be conservative on matters that would result in power being handed to internal organizations. By the time the Sovereign War came to be Alexandra was considered an experienced hand, and some whispered that she would stand for the Chancellorship when that came around. She did not, intent on staying where she was, but regretted it after incompetent people were elected to the position. Her time on the Justice Council well spent, she was promoted to the rank of Minister for Justice and joining the Senate Military Oversight Committee. It was a small committee, too afraid of angering the powerful Senators, and many believed that Alexandra was elected because she could stand against those Senators. The fact that she was promoted to Chairperson after only a year seemed to solidify this belief. But when Faras was elected to the post of Chancellor Schmidt, feeling that democracy was not best being served, voiced her complaints. The Supreme Chancellor In time Faras would come to agree with her and, feeling that the snap election had not been fair and democratic, held yet another election. Schmidt stood for the post herself along with several others and her time during the Senate paid off: her various positions and the fact that she had made herself a strong Senator over the years caused the votes to swing in her favour. For the first time in several decades a female was elected to the post of Supreme Chancellor and, with her mind focused entirely on the rebuilding of the Republic and the defeat of the Kicka Empire. As a militarist she is unwilling to accept negotiations, seeing it as a sign of weakness on behalf of the Republic. Source(s) *1 - http://z7.invisionfree.com/StarWarsGalaxy/index.php?showtopic=14140 Category:Characters